ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President: 
  WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
    Secretary of State.

REGULATIONS RELATING TO TRADE WITH PORTS OPENED BY PROCLAMATION.

Treasury Department, May 12, 1862.

1.  To vessels clearing from foreign ports and destined to ports opened by the proclamation of the President of the United States of this date, namely, Beaufort, in North Carolina; Port Royal, in South Carolina, and New Orleans, in Louisiana, licenses will be granted by consuls of the United States upon satisfactory evidence that the vessels so licensed will convey no persons, property, or information contraband of war either to or from the said ports, which licenses shall be exhibited to the collector of the port to which said vessels may be respectively bound immediately on arrival, and, if required, to any officer in charge of the blockade; and on leaving either of said ports every vessel will be required to have a clearance from the collector of the customs, according to law, showing no violation of the conditions of the license.  Any violation of said conditions will involve the forfeiture and condemnation of the vessel and cargo and the exclusion of all parties concerned from any further privilege of entering the United States during the war for any purpose whatever.

2.  To vessels of the United States clearing coastwise for the ports aforesaid licenses can only be obtained from the Treasury Department.

3.  In all other respects the existing blockade remains in full force and effect as hitherto established and maintained, nor is it relaxed by the proclamation except in regard to the ports to which the relaxation is by that instrument expressly applied.

S.P.  CHASE,

Secretary of the Treasury.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas there appears in the public prints what purports to be a proclamation of Major-General Hunter, in the words and figures following, to wit: 

  HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH,
    Hilton Head, S.C., May 9, 1862.

General Orders, No. 11.—­The three States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, comprising the Military Department of the South, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms against the said United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare them under martial law.  This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862.  Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible; the persons in these three States—­Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina—­heretofore held as slaves are therefore declared forever free.

  DAVID HUNTER,
  Major-General Commanding.